California High Speed Rail

It’s not everyday that a City launches a website dedicated solely to the transit options available, whether they be bus or rail.

It’s certainly not a normal day when an Orange County City launches a website dedicated solely to the transit options available, whether they be bus or rail, or in this case, rapid buses, high-speed rail, and monorails.

The City of Anaheim has recently launched a new website called AConnext, highlighting the future of transit in the Resort Area, as well as providing information for options currently in place, such as OCTA, Metrolink, Amtrak, and Anaheim Resort Transit (ART). The website serves as a one stop shop for residents and transit geeks alike to find all the information they need related to the new and upcoming projects that are sure to excite any diehard transit fans, along with the average businessman looking for ways to get around the Resort Area without driving. read more→

The California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) Authority met today and released a supplemental alternative analysis for the tracks between Los Angeles and Anaheim. They did this after a year of conducting meetings among railroad companies, city planners, and — of course — vociferous homeowners such as the tense, angry Anaheim folks I saw that attended a high-speed rail meeting. In a nutshell:

• 2 mainline dedicated passenger tracks between Fullerton Junction and Commerce (largely within the existing 3-Track BNSF right-of-way).
• 2 existing at-grade shared-use tracks within the OCTA right-of-way from Fullerton Junction to the new ARTIC terminal in Anaheim. These are called "shared-use" because they plan to let both passenger and freight trains that are "temporally separated" run on these.

Doing this alternative — as opposed to building new dedicated bullet train tracks — unfortunately will cut the number of bullet trains that can run from 5 to 3 bullet trains per hour. This arrangement will require that Metrolink runs about 3-4 trains per hour and Amtrak runs 1 train per hour. Also, all trains — including the bullet trains — will be maxed out at 90 mph to prevent train conflicts (or "overtakes" in train parlance). Here's a map of the area:

I personally can't believe that OCTA is honestly going to try and squeeze Metrolink, Amtrak, CAHSR, and freight onto 2 lines. In New York, some corridors run 8 tracks of passenger trains, and when an accident on one track happens, it wreaks havoc on a lot of people's commutes. Imagine if one track gets shut down.

The good news: it'll cost less to build because fewer homes will be taken, and the Federal Railroad Administration recently allowed a similar arrangement to occur for Caltrain, a 2- to 3-track railroad on the San Francisco Peninsula, to allow them to run "mixed-use" passenger train service. Caltrain can now plan to run lighter, more sleeker electrified trains.

Their documents are unfortunately buried in their website; you can read their Press Release after the break, take a look at the Los Angeles to Anaheim presentation, alternative report, recommendations presentation, and their briefing memo.

....and more visuals. Here's a map of the Anaheim study area in particular:

  read more→

So what does Pasadena, Parking Garages, the FTC, and High Speed Rail all have in common? Before you hurt yourself trying to figure out what they all have in common, let’s take topics of Fullerton’s FTC Specific Plan Community Meeting for $500.

On Monday evening, the City of Fullerton along with their partners from Walker Parking Consultants held their first community meeting regarding the redesigning of the Fullerton Transportation Center (FTC) to become a mixed-used transit-oriented development featuring housing, shops, park space, and many new restaurants. You can find out more about the plans and drafts on the Fullerton City website.

Overall, you can’t help but commend the preparedness and efficiency that Fullerton put on for this community meeting. The meeting featured great displays on all the tentative plans and plenty of outlets for public comments. The audience featured a great mix of students, bus riders, Fullerton residents, and city officials. Unfortunately, the sad truth of the matter was that bus riders and transit supporters who attended the meeting were surprised to learn about the proposed future of the FTC. read more→

Still behind in updates although this week should go more smoothly. Lots of restaurants to review, and lots of news to deliver. Meanwhile, I've pasted OCTA's last two weekly news updates below. read more→

OCTA's weekly update was posted a few days ago. Just a few highlights I've found interesting with my opinion in italics:

• California Awarded $2.34 Billion In High-Speed Rail Funding.
• San Clemente Considers Wayside Horn System at Rail Crossings: could this be another "transit" project to benefit homeowners in the area?
• Orangethorpe Rail Corridor near Placentia and Anaheim to grade-separate 5 different crossings: could this be another "transit" project to benefit motorists in the area?
• OCTA's still throwing a few million dollars away in studies to evaluate building a several-billion-dollar freeway/tollway tunnel beneath the mountains separating Corona and Irvine. I'll post more about this later.
• OCTA will likely cut deeper into bus service in September. More about this later. 

The Weekly Update follows: read more→

(Above photos by Simon Oh.)

Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity at the Southern California Transit Forum, a huge conference with over 350 attendees, including politicians, transit managers, coach operators, union representatives, lobbyists, and transit advocates. I'm still trying to digest it, but if I could describe my impressions in a few words:

• Transit staff get it. They know what needs to be done to address the massive bus cuts. The CEOs of Metro and OCTA know what's politically practical and feasible.
• Politicians don't get it — and if they do get the transit funding crisis, it's not a hot topic on their radar. They continually made references to how great foreigners think Orange County's freeways are, made up lots of inside jokes, and talked about shiny projects like California High Speed Rail while photos of happy, smiling patrons on the bus and train flashed in the background.
• There are few practical solutions left. OCTA and Metro are preparing rounds of massive cuts. Most politicians and staff are resigned to let the cuts happen because California state cuts are likely to happen. Instead, they're looking to do a statewide initiative to protect local funds, and more county-wide initiatives.

Photos, video, and more after the break. (Edit 1: Added CAHSR video below.) (Edit 2: Added OCTA's recap video below.) (Edit 3: Added Simon's photo above.) read more→

A ton of news packed in OCTA's weekly e-mail newsletter. I've pasted it here below, and you can also view the original post here. In a nutshell:

• OCTA cheers for the new $2.34 bil investment in California High Speed Rail (the bullet train to link Anaheim, Los Angeles, and San Francisco). Improvements to existing track should bring Metrolink and Amtrak up to a max speed of 110 mph.
• Amante & Kempton talk goals. OCTA Chairman Jerry Amante wants to stabilize bus operations, but most of his details talk about further reducing bus service to an "efficient" level. CEO Will Kempton wants to further integrate Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, Coaster, and Metrolink Orange County Line / Ventura County Line services.
• Santa Ana is hosting two Go Local meetings next week about its planned freeway offramp through Garden Grove & the streetcar linking Garden Grove and Santa Ana's depot.
• OC Register takes a pessimistic view of the Irvine Shuttle, claiming that Irvine spends $19 per rider on a shuttle service that serves the Irvine Business Complex.

  read more→

Obama is set to announce tomorrow a whopping $2.35 billion in federal funds dedicated to improving intercity transit infrastructure in California. Here's what California's getting, according to Robert Cruickshank's comprehensive California High Speed Rail Blog: read more→

I (the Steve) helped Ted Nguyen at OCTA out with some photographs from the California High Speed Rail Los Angeles-Anaheim segment meeting, a packed auditorium well-attended by 150 or so folks whom, I noticed, were at least 40 years of age and above. Anyways, I'll write tomorrow more on it.

Below is pasted a copy of OCTA's latest Weekly Update newsletter. The most interesting part of the newsletter is this:

Policy Committee to Meet about Major Investment Study

Thursday, Jan. 28 –  The Central County Corridor Major Investment Policy Advisory Committee meeting will take place at OCTA headquarters in conference room 103 / 104 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Contact Fernando Chavarria at (714) 560-5306 or fchavarria@octa.net.

If you recall, this is the proposal to extend the 57 freeway underneath the Santa Ana River, or even operate light rail/buses near the river. I think anyone interested in future of Orange County's transit should attend this meeting. read more→